Day Care

[Rudey]

I'd bust out the pepper spray. Little Johnny Doe would go down.

-Rudey

Originally posted by AGDee
Ok, hypothetical situation here... (and I worked on child and adolescent inpatient psych units for many years so I have seen this type of behavior first hand).

Little Johnny Doe is 4 years old and is throwing a temper tantrum. He is throwing blocks all over the room. He has been redirected and told to take a time out, but he does not comply. There are 25 other kids in the room and he's throwing these blocks really hard. Then he starts biting himself. What do you do?

Or, two kids are locked in a fight and you have to get them separated. No amount of verbal redirection is working. What do you do?

Granted, this was a psychiatric hospital but we were trained in methods of restraint, approved by the mental health department because these methods would not injure the child (or the staff). They included approaching the child from behind, securing his arms, crossed in front of him, elbows locked so his arms wouldn't be injured and leaning back slightly to put him off balance. You would sometimes have to hold this child in this position until he calmed down while talking to them in a calm and reassuring voice (and neurologically, this position slows the Central Nervous System and helps them calm down). Sometimes, to protect the child, or other children, you have to gently restrain them.

They can't just let kids run wild and endanger themselves or others. The typical child would NEVER need this type of behavior managment, but I would think that legally, they need to point out that they have a right ( even an obligation?) to do this. If Johnny Doe beat the crap out of your child because the staff weren't allowed to put hands on him, you'd be pretty upset.

Dee

ETA: I still listen to everything my children tell me, and then continue to question them to find out the whole truth. Usually, with my son, I get "Well he hit me first". Then I ask "What were you doing to annoy him?", because he doesn't tell the whole story right away, ever. Part of it is knowing your own child. I know I can't take what he says at face value, but I also know how to get the whole story out of him. More than once he has come running to me to say "Daddy hit me" and I clarify "He spanked you? On the butt? With his hand?", he nods and I say "Why?" and he tells me what he did wrong. That's what I take to be the meaning of that statement.